text:
The barriers that make up the border wall
EL PASO, Texas (BorderReport.com) — For many who live in the borderland, the border barriers separating the United States and Mexico are really nothing new.
There are currently 188 miles of different border barriers in the El Paso sector, from the legacy chain link fence to steel fences and beyond.
Mount Cristo Rey, which sits at the borders of Texas, New Mexico and Mexico, is also one of them.
"The barrier is meant to be exactly that, it's to be the obstacle for somebody who wants to come illegally into the United States," said Agent Fidel Baca, spokesman for the U.S. Border Patrol. "They are going to face this obstacle. they are going to have to get through it to come in illegally. Well, the mountain is just that, a natural barrier."
In 1993 the U.S. Border Patrol launched Operation Hold the Line. It was designed to make agents more visible along the border, almost like a vehicle wall.
"It was open, all of this, there was nothing here," said former Congressman Silvestre Reyes, who was also Chief of the El Paso Border Patrol sector at the time.
He ordered the blockade.
"I came up with moving the agents right up on the line, and going from chasing and arresting to acting as a force of deterrence," Reyes said.
Chain link and mesh fences
The chain-link fence is still on a small portion of the border, but it is all being replaced by the bollard fence because the chain link is not durable.
"Somebody could just make a hole and come across," Baca said.
One area of that fence ended up gathering trash and sand shifting the ground. At one point, the ground was taller on the Mexico side.
"On the south side, people would stand there and the fence would be chest high. agents would be on the ground because of the dirt build up and be looking up and the fence would be over them" said Dr. Victor Manjarrez, former Border Patrol sector chief.
There are also mesh fences, which are also easy to look through, but if you look at them closely, the mesh doubles up. That makes them harder to cut through.
Bollard fence
In 2008, when Victor Manjarrez was El Paso's Border Patrol chief, the stronger fences started being built.
"That fence is not designed to stop every single person," Manjarrez said. "What it does, it does filter who is going to cross over a fence. More importantly, it provides law enforcement the ability to respond to an incursion."
In some cases, the bollard fence was put in place to allow for water, sand and even trash to flow through.
It's the hardest of all fences to cut through. The steel beams are filled with cement and rebar.
Vehicle barriers
In the more rural areas with more rugged terrain and not a home for miles, you can find vehicle barriers.
"If someone does decide to walk across, we have a lot more time for us to find the entry, and react to the entry to make the apprehension," Baca said.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Michael Potter is Professor of Logic in the Philosophy Faculty at Cambridge University and a Life Fellow of Fitzwilliam College. He was previously at Oxford, where he took a D.Phil. in pure mathematics and was a Fellow of Balliol College. He spent periods of research leave in the Department of Logic and Metaphysics at St Andrews and the Department of Philosophy at Harvard. In 2004 and 2005 he was on research leave from Cambridge as a Senior Research Fellow at Stirling University funded by the AHRC.
His research interests lie mainly in the history of analytic philosophy (in particular Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein and Ramsey), the philosophy of mathematics, and philosophical logic. He has supervised research students on the following topics:
- Fictionalism
- Animal action and intentionality
- HIlbert's programme and neo-Fregean logicism
- The concept horse
- Ramsey
- Putnam's permutation argument
- Predicative mathematics
- Impredicativity in mathematics
- Harmony
- Prospects for neo-Kantian philosophy of mathematics
- Theories of ontology
- Modal ontological arguments for the existence of God
Michaelmas Term 2022
Truth (for Part IB, Paper 1)
Realism and its alternatives (for Part II, Paper 1)
The nature of logic (for Part II, Paper 8)
Wittgenstein, Blue Book (for Part II, Paper 9)
Lent Term 2023
Wittgenstein's Tractatus (for Part II, Paper 9)
Set theory (for Part II, Paper 7)
Russell on denoting and the external world programme (for Part IB, Paper 2)
Easter Term 2020
The Rise of Analytic Philosophy 1879-1930: From Frege to Ramsey, Routledge, 2019
Reviewed in Phenomenological Reviews.
Wittgenstein's Notes on Logic, Oxford University Press, 2009 (paperback edition 2011)
Set Theory and its Philosophy: A Critical Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2004
Reason's Nearest Kin: Philosophies of Arithmetic from Kant to Carnap, Oxford University Press, 2000 (paperback edition 2002, online edition May 2007)
Mengentheorie, Heidelberg: Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, 1994
This is a German translation (by Achim Wittmüss) of the following. |
Sets: An Introduction, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990 [Now almost wholly supplanted by Set Theory and its Philosophy (which was originally conceived as a second edition of it).]
Forthcoming book
Wittgenstein's 1916 Transformation
Edited Collections
(Ed. with Peter Sullivan) Wittgenstein's Tractatus: History and interpretation Oxford University Press, 2013
(Ed. with Tom Ricketts) The Cambridge Companion to Frege, Cambridge University Press, 2010
(Ed. with Mary Leng and Alexander Paseau) Mathematical Knowledge, Oxford University Press, 2007
Published articles
Some outstanding questions, in Maurice Pope, The Keys to Democracy (Exeter: Imprint Academic, 2023), pp. 189-93
Foreword to new edition of Russell's Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy (Routledge, 2023)
Foreword to new edition of Russell's Essay on the Foundations of Geometry (Routledge, 2023)
How substantial are Tractarian objects really?, Disputatio (Spain), 10 (2021), 93-107
Intuitive and regressive justifications for set theories, Philosophia Mathematica, 28 (2020), 385-94 https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.57333
Nonsense among the philosophers. in James Williams and Anna Barton (eds), The Edinburgh Companion to Nonsense (Edinburgh University Press, 2019)
Propositions in Wittgenstein and Ramsey. In G. M. Mraas et al. (eds) Philosophy of Logic and Mathematics: Proceedings of the 41st International Ludwig Wittgenstein Symposium (de Gruyter, 2019) ISBN 9783110654301
(With Peter Sullivan) Introduction. In Peter Sullivan and Michael Potter (eds), Wittgenstein's Tractatus: History and interpretation (Oxford University Press, 2013)
Wittgenstein's pre-Tractatus manuscripts: A re-assessment. In Peter Sullivan and Michael Potter (eds), Wittgenstein's Tractatus: History and interpretation (Oxford University Press, 2013)
Frege, Russell and Wittgenstein. In Gillian Russell and Delia Graff Fara (eds), Routledge Companion to the Philosophy of Language(Routledge, 2012) ISBN 9780415993104
Set theory, Philosophy of. Routledge Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, online edition, April 2011
Wittgenstein's philosophy of mathematics. In Oskari Kuusela and Marie McGinn (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Wittgenstein (Oxford University Press, 2011) ISBN 9780199287505
Narodzhennja analytychnoi filosofii. Filosofska Dumka, 2011, no. 3, pp. 47-68 An abridgement and translation into Ukrainian by Oleksiy Panych of "The birth of analytic philosophy".
Introduction. In Michael Potter and Tom Ricketts (eds), The Cambridge Companion to Frege (CUP, 2010), pp. 1-31
Abstractionist class theory: Is there any such thing? In Jonathan Lear and Alex Oliver (eds), The Force of Argument: Essays in Honor of Timothy Smiley(Routledge, 2009), pp. 186-204 A discussion of the philosophical prospects for basing a neo-Fregean theory of classes on a principle that attempts to articulate the limitation-of-size conception.
The logic of the Tractatus. In Dov M. Gabbay and John Woods (eds), Handbook of the History of Logic, vol. 5 (North-Holland, 2009), pp. 255-304 Describes some of the main features of the logic and metaphysics of Wittgenstein's Tractatus.
The birth of analytic philosophy. In Dermot Moran (ed), The Routledge Companion to Twentieth Century Philosophy(Routledge, 2008), pp. 60-92 Tries to identify some strands in the birth of analytic philosophy and to identify in consequence some of its distinctive features.
What is the problem of mathematical knowledge? In Mary Leng, Alexander Paseau and Michael Potter (eds), Mathematical Knowledge(OUP, 2007), 16-32 Suggests that the recent emphasis on Benacerraf's access problem locates the peculiarity of mathematical knowledge in the wrong place. Instead we should focus on the sense in which mathematical concepts are or might be "armchair concepts" — concepts about which non-trivial knowledge is obtainable a priori.
Ramsey's transcendental argument. In Hallvard Lillehammer and D. H. Mellor (eds), Ramsey's Legacy (OUP, 2005), 71-82 Explores the historical and philosophical background to a curious argument of Ramsey's that in the Tractatus the possibility of the infinite proves its actuality.
(With Peter Sullivan) What is wrong with abstraction? Philosophia Mathematica, 13 (2005) 187-93 We correct a misunderstanding by Hale and Wright of an objection we raised in 'Hale on Caesar' to their abstractionist programme for rehabilitating logicism in the foundations of mathematics.
(With Timothy Smiley) Recarving content: Hale's final proposal. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 102 (2002) 351-4 A follow-up, showing why Bob Hale's revision of his notion of weak sense is still inadequate.
(With Timothy Smiley) Abstraction by recarving. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 101 (2001), 327-38 Explains why Bob Hale's proposed notion of weak sense cannot explain the analyticity of Hume's principle as he claims. Argues that no other notion of the sort Hale wants could do the job either.
Was Gödel a Gödelian platonist? Philosophia Mathematica, 9 (2001) 331-46 Gödel's appeal to mathematical intuition to ground our grasp of the axioms of set theory is notorious. I extract from his writings an account of this form of intuition which distinguishes it from the metaphorical platonism of which Gödel is sometimes accused and brings out the similarities between Gödel's views and Dummett's. [Reviews: Zbl 1007.01017, MR 2002g:01014]
Intuition and reflection in arithmetic. Arist. Soc. Supp. Vol., 73 (1999) 63-73 Classifies accounts of arithmetic into four sorts according to the resources they appeal to in constructing its subject matter.
Classical arithmetic as part of intuitionistic arithmetic. Grazer Philosophische Studien, 55 (1998) 127-41 Argues that classical arithmetic can be viewed as a proper part of intuitionistic arithmetic. Suggests that this largely neutralizes Dummett's argument for intuitionism in the case of arithmetic.
Philosophical issues in arithmetic. Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy A survey article.
Different systems of set theory. Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy A survey article.
(With Peter Sullivan) Hale on Caesar. Philosophia Mathematica, 5 (1997), 135--52 Presents a battery of difficulties for the notion that arithmetic can be based on Hume's principle. [Reviews: Zbl 0938.01016, MR 98h:03009]
Taming the infinite. British Journal of Philosophy of Science, 47 (1996), 609-19 A critique of Shaughan Lavine's attempt in Understanding the Infinite to reduce talk about the infinite to finitely comprehensible terms. [Review: MR 97m:03012]
Critical notice of `Parts of classes' by David Lewis. The Philosophical Quarterly, 43 (1993), 362-366 Argues that Lewis is not as ontologically innocent as he pretends.
The metalinguistic perspective in mathematics. Acta Analytica, 11 (1993), 79-86Tries to find a common source for several well-known paradoxes in mathematics - Skolem's paradox, the permutation argument, and Russell's paradox.
Infinite coincidences and inaccessible truths. In Philosophy of Mathematics, Proceedings of the 15th International Wittgenstein Symposium, Vol. 1(Vienna: Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky, 1993), 307-13Argues, contra Dummett, that the platonist need not be any more committed than the intuitionist to the notion that there are arithmetical truths in principle inaccessible to any finite intelligence.
Iterative set theory. The Philosophical Quarterly, 43 (1993), 178-93Discusses the metaphysics of the iterative conception of set.
Book reviews
Elucidating the Tractatus: Wittgenstein's Early Philosophy of Logic and Language by Marie McGinn. Philosophical Quarterly60 (2010) 192-4
Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Wittgenstein and the Tractatus by Michael Morris. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (2009)
Constructibility and Mathematical Existence by Charles Chihara. Philosophical Quarterly 41 (1991) 345-8
The Philosophy of Set Theory by Mary Tiles. Philosophical Books
Selected talks
- Wittgenstein's early philosophy of religion
Conference on philosophy of religion
LMH, Oxford
14-16 September 2011 - Our grasp of the classical continuum
Prof Leitgeb's seminar series
LMU, Munich
30 June 2011 - Wittgenstein's early philosophy of religion
Conference on philosophy of religion
28 June 2011 - 'Sometimes I seemto see a difficulty': Frege's conception of self-subsistence
Colloquium on Frege's Philosophy of Mathematics
28-30 May 2011 - Great Thinkers: Wittgenstein
CLIO (Cambridge University History Society)
Trinity Hall, Cambridge
3 May 2011 - Our grasp of the classical continuum
Set theory and higher order logic
Birkbeck College London
30 March 2011 - Privacy and acquaintance in Frege, Russell and Wittgenstein
Centenary of "Knowledge by acquaintance and knowledge by description"
University of Texas at Austin
26 March 2011 - Our grasp of the classical continuum
Logic Seminar
Cambridge University
24 February 2011 - Privacy and acquaintance in Frege, Russell and Wittgenstein
Logic Seminar
17 February 2011 - Two kinds of ambiguity?
Principa Centenary Symposium
Trinity College Cambridge
27 November 2010 - The role of classes in Principia
One Hundred Years of Principia Mathematica
Trinity College Dublin
12 July 2010, 11am - 12pmThe axiom of reducibility in Principia can be thought of as a class existence axiom. Yet class terms are incomplete symbols which disappear on analysis. I shall discuss the interaction between these two features of the system and relate them to later critcisims of Principia by Wittgenstein and Ramsey.
- Why ZF is not a foundation for mathematics (but nor is ZU)
Paris VII
22 June 2010 - More on replacement
Logic Seminar
Cambridge University
18 February 2010 - More on replacement
22 October 2009 - Wittgenstein on solipsism
Department Seminar
Sheffield University
16 October 2009 - Why study philosophy?
UUM, Sintok, Malaysia
30 July 2009 - Classes as ideal elements and limitation of size
The Imaginary, the Ideal and the Infinite in Mathematics
Pont-a-Mousson, France
26th June 2009 - Wittgenstein 1916
Conference on the Tractatus
Clermont Ferrand
8 June 2009 - Wittgenstein and the club but not the poker
Moral Sciences Club
Cambridge University
October 2008 - Where does arithmetic fit into transcendental philosophy?
Transcendental Philosophy and Naturalism
Stewart House, University of London
25 April 2008 - More thoughts on replacement
Philosophy of Mathematics Seminar
Oxford University
29 October 2007 - Wittgenstein in conflict: How the Tractatuswas born
Alumni Weekend
Cambridge University
22 September 2007 - Frege's influence on Wittgenstein
Stapledon Philosophy Colloquium
Liverpool University
30 April 2007 - Set Theory without Replacment
Reinhardt Memorial Lecture
University of Colorado at Boulder
22 March 2007, 3.15-5pm - How much set theory does topology need?
General Topology Seminar
Oxford University
7 March 2007, 4pm - 6pm - Wittgenstein in conflict: How the Tractatus was born
Undergraduate Philosophy Society
Reading University
20 February 2007 -
How abstract is topology?
Conference in honour of Peter Colliins
Mathematical Institute, Oxford
10 August 2006 - How does a set depend on its members?
Colloquium on Set Theory
20 May 2006 - Wittgenstein's debt to Frege
Workshop on Wittgenstein's Tractatus
Cambridge University
29 April 2006 - Wittgenstein's later philosophy of mathematics: Is there any such thing?
Conference on Wittgenstein's Philosophy of Mathematics
University of Kent at Canterbury
28 January 2006, 2pm - 4pm - The genesis of the Notes on Logic
Logic Seminar
Cambridge University
19 January 2006 - Negative facts in the Notes on Logic
Conference on The Tractatus and its History
Stirling University
10 September 2005 - The genesis of the Notes on Logic
Workshop on Wittgenstein's Tractatus
Stirling University
4 June 2005 - What is wrong with abstractionism?
Neo-Fregean Logicism Seminar
St Andrews University
25th November 2004, 11am - 1pm - Ramsey's transcendental argument for the axiom of infinity
Notre Dame University
22nd September 2004, 3pm - Tatsache, Sachverhalt and Sachlage
Workshop on Wittgenstein's Tractatus
Stirling University
3rd April 2004 - Is the Tractatus really nonsense?
Philosophy Departmental Seminar
Trinity College Dublin
30th January 2004 - Ramsey's transcendental arguments for infinity
Ramsey Centenary Conference
Newnham College, Cambridge
30th June 2003 - Logic and analyticity
Oxford University Philosophical Society
14th February 2002 - Mathematics as tautological
Philosophy Department Seminar
20th October 2000 - Hilbertian formalism
Moral Sciences Club
26th January 1999 - Intuition and reflection in arithmetic
Joint Session
July 1998
Contact Details
Postal address: Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge CB3 0DG
Email address: firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
Remember the first time you heard about Twitter?
At the time, you may have scoffed and said you could care less about what someone ate for lunch. But years later, with 400 million monthly visitors, the social network that uses 140-character tweets shows that millions of people obviously feel differently.
Millions of people follow famous personalities or celebrities on Twitter to see what they think. Not content with that information, they also may regularly check Facebook, LinkedIn and other social networking sites to stay abreast of what co-workers are doing or what industry leaders are saying.
That drive to know what others are saying or tweeting provides important lessons for those who want to be more influential, says Kurt W. Mortensen, author of Maximum Influence.
"Social validation boosts your influence," he says. "People will always believe someone else before they believe you. We think that if someone likes you or your product, then it must be good."
That means recommendations on LinkedIn or "likes" on Facebook can boost your influence, as can your ability to tailor your persuasion skills to individuals, he says.
"Probably one of the biggest mistakes we make in trying to influence others is trying to persuade them in the way we like to be persuaded — and not the way they like to be persuaded," he says. "Most of us only have three or four persuasion tools, and that's another mistake."
A person has many ways to persuade others, from conveying the right body language to telling stories that evoke emotion, Mortensen says. The key is listening carefully to garner enough clues to use the right techniques so the other person is moved to trust you and believe what you're saying.
"I'm not talking about manipulation," he says. "It's not persuasion if it's not a win-win for everyone. But if you believe in a product, then I believe you have a moral obligation to persuade someone to buy it instead of letting them go with an inferior product from someone else."
So if you have a great idea for your company, then you need to also find the best way to persuade your boss to accept it.
Such a move can be tricky because you have to be careful, Mortensen says. You don't want to step on the boss's ego.
"Make sure you're asking the right questions so that you're sort of leading the boss down the path you want him to go. Don't just dump data on him," Mortensen says. "It doesn't matter if he ends up thinking the whole thing was his idea. Check your ego at the door if you really want to get something done."
Whether trying to influence the boss or a roomful of colleagues, he says one of the best ways to get others to follow your direction is through the use of stories.
That story will help the most if it is emotional, according to a University of Pennsylvania Wharton School study. Researchers found that of 7,000 newspaper articles in The New York Times, those that go viral on the Internet are those that arouse emotions, such as happiness, anger or anxiety.
Another way to boost your influence: Don't make the mistake that only higher-ups have the power to make things happen, Mortensen says.
For example, a job candidate should (read the rest here)


text:
WikiLeaks says Assange is ill; he misses brief court hearing
LONDON (AP) — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange missed a court session Thursday, apparently due to health problems. He had been expected to appear from prison via video link at a brief extradition hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court.
Lawyer Gareth Peirce told the court Assange was "not very well."
Assange, 47, is in Belmarsh Prison serving a 50-week sentence for jumping bail in Britain while fighting extradition to the United States, which accuses him of violating the Espionage Act by publishing secret documents containing the names of confidential military and diplomatic sources.
Sweden also seeks him for questioning about an alleged rape, which Assange has denied.
It is not clear which claim would take precedence. The decision would likely be made by Britain's home secretary.
Judge Emma Arbuthnot said a more substantive extradition hearing set for June 12 may be moved to a court next to Belmarsh Prison for convenience.
Roughly two dozen supporters chanted "Free Assange" outside the courthouse. His case has attracted fresh support from free press advocates in the week since the U.S. filed serious espionage charges against him.
He had earlier been held on suspicion of conspiracy to break into classified computer systems, a less serious charge.
WikiLeaks said in a statement it has "grave concerns" about Assange's health. The anti-secrecy group says he has been moved to the prison health ward.
The group says Assange has "dramatically lost weight" and recently "it was not possible to conduct a normal conversation with him."
The complicated extradition process, which involves both Sweden and the United States and deals with press freedom and national security issues, is expected to last for months or years.
Assange was arrested by British police in April after Ecuadorian officials withdrew his asylum status. He had sought refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in 2012 when Sweden was trying to question him about sexual misconduct allegations.
The Western Journal has not reviewed this Associated Press story prior to publication. Therefore, it may contain editorial bias or may in some other way not meet our normal editorial standards. It is provided to our readers as a service from The Western Journal.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.


text:
Energy Committee Favorably Reports Energy Secretary Nominee Dr. Ernest Moniz
Washington, D.C. – Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., today announced that the committee voted to favorably report the nomination of Dr. Ernest Moniz to serve as Secretary of Energy.
"Dr. Moniz could become the first Secretary of Energy who, instead of having to confront energy shortages and scarcity, instead would oversee an era of abundant carbon-reducing natural gas and dramatic growth of renewable energy technologies," Wyden said.
"From my experience working with Dr. Moniz, I believe he is more than up to the challenges that our country is going to face in this historic transition for our energy sector."
The committee approved the nomination by a vote of 21 to 1. The nomination now goes to the full Senate for its consideration.


text:
My arms hurt so much today, I can hardly lift a cup of coffee, and I feel quite silly. This is how it happened...
I played ice hockey all through high school and into my early 20s. I loved being a goalie, and after going to lots of Kings games with Nolan in January, I decided that I was going to put on my pads and play again before the 2009 was over.
Well, due to a series of unexpected events, it didn't happen, so I pushed the goal (ha! ha!) into this year and started going to a gym three or four days a week to get back into shape. I've been doing lots of cardio conditioning for the last 6 weeks, and this last week I finally added some light weight work.
Now, I'm not talking anything serious, just some very light weight work. Like ten pounds in three twenty rep sets. Hey, stop laughing at me. I haven't lifted anything heavier than a pen in at least five years.
I deliberately started out light and easy so I wouldn't hurt myself or overdo it. It felt a little silly to be putting the three machines I used on their lightest settings, but I got over that pretty quickly ... especially when doing my third set of incline presses was rather difficult.
This was two days ago, and even though my arms ached a little bit and felt a little heavy all day yesterday, I was glad for it. It made me feel like I was leveling a little bit, and gaining muscle XP (yes, there is nothing in the world that I can't view in gaming terms).
So yesterday, I got Bioshock 2. Anne was out all evening, so I settled in for a return trip to Rapture. Just like the first time I played Bioshock, I didn't open the manual or learn anything about the game; I just started playing and let the world and the story unfold while I was playing. I won't spoil it for anyone, but the first 60 minutes or so of the game was more exciting and compelling than any blockbuster movie I've seen in recent memory.
Here's a quick spoiler-free mini-review of Bioshock 2, based on my 7(ish) hours of gameplay: I really like it. I loved Bioshock because of the story and the world, and Bioshock 2 had some very big (daddy) shoes to fill. The story is still unfolding, but so far, it's very compelling. And Rapture ... well, things have really gone downhill since the last time I was in Rapture. So I can't say definitively that it's the best thing ever because I haven't played it all the way through, but it's not every day that I pick up a sequel to a game I loved and play it for seven hours straight without complaint.
I took a brief break to eat dinner and watch the Kings (8-1-1 in their last 10) make the Oilers (3-7-0 in their last 10) look like the 1981 Islanders. It's like the Kings decided that the Oilers, being the worst team in the NHL this year, would be a cakewalk, so they didn't need to, you know, show up to play. I gave up after two incredibly frustrating periods and went back under the sea. (Kings eventually lost in a shootout after coming back to tie it while I was fighting with [SPOILER] in [SPOILER] and holy shit [SPOILER] was [SPOILER]!)
"Man, I could keep playing this all night," I thought. "I could take the day off tomorrow, too. I could totally sleep in tomorrow and nobody would care."
"Are you fucking serious?" My dad voice said. "Anne's off work tomorrow. You're planning to clean the house together, get started on the taxes, and work on your PAX East keynote. How the hell are you going to do that if you sleep all day?"
"But ... Rapture!" It was the best I could do, on account of I was trying not to let [SPOILER] kill me at the time.
"Hey! I'm talking to you. Pause the game," My dad voice said.
"You need to act your age, be responsible, and go to sleep. Bioshock isn't going anywhere."
I mumbled something under my breath.
"Excuse me?"
"I said 'okay,'" I lied.
"That's what I thought you said. Now save the game and go to sleep."
"Oh, I have to, uh, get to a save point," I said.
"Nice try, mister, but I've played this too, remember? You can save and exit whenever you want."
I mumbled something different under my breath. Ten minutes later I was in bed.
When I woke up this morning, I tried to lift myself out of bed with my right arm, like I do every day, and I couldn't do it. I had to roll over to my left, all the way across the bed, and hop out on Anne's side (which, to be honest, was kind of cool and ninja in retrospect).
I initially thought that the pain was due to exercising my arms for the first time in years, but the more I thought about it, the more I noticed that the pain was localized just above my right elbow, while my left arm really didn't hurt that much. I replayed yesterday's marathon Bioshock 2 session in my head, and realized that I'd been so into the game, I was fiercely gripping the controller the entire time I played it, engaging all of those muscles that had, just 24 hours earlier, been subjected to ten pounds of weightlifting horror.
Feeling very stupid, and hoping that my dad voice wouldn't find out, I walked into the kitchen and yelped when I tried to make myself a cup of coffee.
"What's wrong?" Anne asked.
I told her.
This is where, were our lives a movie, we'd just go to stock footage: she looks at me for a second, cocks her head to one side, starts to say something, stops, and just slowly shakes her head.
"I know, I know," I said. "Let's not tell my dad voice though, okay?"
"Your what?"
"Uh, never mind ... can you help me with this coffee?"


text:
In the late 1800s, when Boston emerged as the epicenter of a national bicycling craze, women initially were relegated to tricycles. But as they began switching to the kind of two-wheeled bikes men rode, publications offered stern advice on how a lady ought to dress while cycling.
In an 1894 New York Times story headlined, "Garb of Man Makes a Fool of a Woman She Declares and She is Waging a War Against It," Mary Sargent Hopkins said: "Now, if there is one thing I hate, it is a masculine woman. It has made my heart sore to see the women who have been putting on knickerbockers . . . racing and scorching with the men."
So it is no surprise that Hopkins, a Boston resident who published the women's bicycling magazine The Wheelwoman, found little to like about Kittie Knox.
Knox, a seamstress born in 1874 to a free black father and a white mother, became a prominent and accomplished cyclist by the 1890s in Boston. But her mixed racial heritage raised eyebrows, as did her insistence on riding a man's bike and wearing pantaloons of her own design instead of the long, heavy skirts prescribed by Hopkins and her ilk.
And if that weren't enough, she excelled at the sport: Knox completed multiple 100-mile rides and placed 12th out of 50 male and female cyclists in a major national race, "far ahead of her lighter-hued sisters," one magazine reported.
But in 1900, at age 26, Knox died at Massachusetts General Hospital of kidney disease. She was buried in a grave at Mount Auburn Cemetery that was unmarked until Sunday, when three generations of her relatives attended a ceremony dedicating a new headstone.
Knox had seemed doomed to obscurity. But six years ago, author Lorenz Finison stumbled across her name while researching a forthcoming book on Boston's cycling history. Passing references to Knox in cycling books prompted Finison to search local newspaper archives for more information.
"I found an article saying she won a cycling costume contest in Waltham," said Finison, a teacher at the Boston University School of Public Health and a cofounder of Cycling Through History, which develops bike routes between African-American heritage sites. "I thought, that's really amazing. Why, given the racial climate of the time, would she have won a contest out there? I thought I should look into it more."
In 2009, Finison tracked down Nan Towle-Millet, a 71-year-old Acton resident whose great-aunt was Knox's mother.
That meeting eventually led to Sunday's ceremony.
After Finison's call, Towle-Millet scoured her family's documents and photo albums for clues, eventually locating a tintype image of Knox.
Towle-Millet's granddaughter, Elsa Millett, who majored in gender studies while setting running records at Bowdoin College, said Knox's defiance of the era's racism took courage.
"I'm proud that there's a story about such a strong woman in my own family," she said. "Despite institutional barriers, she pursued something that she enjoyed doing, that made her heart beat. It's inspiring."
Finison eventually unearthed a trove of stories about Knox. While many articles were preoccupied with her race and appearance — "a beautiful and buxom black bloomerite" was one reference in Referee Magazine — he learned that Knox had been a member of Boston's only black cycling group, the Riverside Cycle Club, before joining the Boston-based National League of American Wheelman in 1893.
Knox soon found herself at the epicenter of a fight over whether blacks could join the league, he said. After a Southern faction of league leaders successfully politicked in 1894 to make the group for whites only, Knox's appearance at the league's 1895 national meet in Asbury Park, N.J., caused an uproar. Trouble began upon her arrival, when, rather than appease critics, "Miss Knox did a few fancy cuts in front of the clubhouse and was requested to desist," The New York Times reported.
Then, when Knox went to register for the meet and presented her membership card, the credentials were rejected.
"[Knox's] entrance today, in the parlor of the Asbury Park wheelmen, caused wild consternation among the ladies gathered there," wrote a San Francisco paper, according to Finison's manuscript. "She was politely told that she was in the wrong house. To their utter surprise she produced a league membership card and declared that no exception had ever been taken to her color by wheelmen or wheelwomen. After asserting herself to that extent, Miss Knox walked defiantly out with her wheel."
Even after members of the Massachusetts delegation intervened to ensure her participation, successfully arguing she had been admitted before the color bar, Finison writes that anger persisted: A group of white women cyclists threatened to quit in protest; dozens walked out of a League dance when Knox partnered with a white man; a Southern paper slammed League leaders for permitting "this murky goddess of Beanville" to ride.
Now, Finison and Knox's relatives hope the new headstone, inscribed with a bicycle, will keep her story alive.
"I would hope that people take away some sense of her courage and pluck in what she did, in a time when it was not easy," Finison said. "There are some lessons in terms of the need to put up resistance to the kind of injustice that she and others faced at the time."
Finison said Knox's story also underlines the struggle of the modern bicycling community to bring a greater diversity of riders into its ranks, both for health and environmental reasons.
"She represents to me the movement to broaden bicycling beyond where it started in 1870s, when it was almost exclusively the province of white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant men," he said.
Much of the Globe's coverage of early Boston cycling clubs, as cited by Finison, betrays blatantly racist and sexist attitudes common in that era. But one Globe report from the event in 1895 at Asbury Park trumpeted Knox's abilities, perhaps to point a finger at Southern papers that had decried her participation.
"The leaders tried to lose Knox during the eighteen mile run but she was game, and when the big crowd entered the town on the return trip she was up with the leaders, sailing with the best of them," the Globe wrote. "She was not to be consigned to the tribe of 'also rans,' and today all the League members are anxious to see her. And when she appears in the street she receives more attention than a half dozen star racing men."
Dan Adams can be reached at email@example.com. Find him on Twitter at @DanielAdams86.


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People often complain they don't have  time to blog. This week I'll have two seminar opportunities to try to convince people that even very busy people can blog – provided they are ready to change some daily work and life routines.
Journalists and students amaze me when they appear at meetings and jolt down notes on paper. There are so many tools for digital note taking these days – and for online and public note taking. There are still so many people keeping their bookmarks on their own browsers, instead of using social bookmarks, not to mention the limited use of tools such as Google Reader.
In March I posted on PBS MediaShift about the tools helping to "live-stream your newsroom", but in fact one could use those same tools for a personal learning environment — and blogging is part of that environment. I now tried to use Prezi as a concept map and presentation tool in order to express these ideas. In contrast to the more linear slideshow I made about the subject, the Prezi-version shows better the cycle of the social media.
It starts from digital notes and concept map wikis, to evolve via Twitter and Tumblr to RSS feeds, social bookmarks, long form and live blogging to immersive discussions and participatory presentations. If everything goes well, the comments and interactions help the blogger to restart the whole cycle.
The emergence of simple tools such as Tumblr and Posterous, combined with smartphones and tablets, make it much easier to keep up with blogging and social media. This may sound self-evident to many of you, but in broader circles the discussion about the possibilities of these tools is just beginning. Just look around, how many entrepreneurs, managers and experts are actively blogging? Many of course, but many more don't use these tools or ask their communication departments to do it in their place.
So here is the Prezi, I'll update the thing this week, so don't hesitate to comment!


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It's been more than a week since news of the Heartbleed flaw launched a frantic scramble on the Web, but security professionals' palpitations haven't subsided.
The OpenSSL Software Foundation has issued a fix, and Google, Cisco, Juniper Networks, Akamai and hordes of other companies have begun patching their products.
The open source community "reacted very quickly to the vulnerability, which is good," Diego Sor, head of security consulting services at Core Security, told TechNewsWorld.
Predictably, scammers and spammers have climbed onto the Heartbleed solution bandwagon, and legitimate companies are using the term as a marketing hook.
Also predictably, news that the NSA has been exploiting the flaw has made the headlines, thus ensuring we know our tax dollars are at work and providing further proof it will investigate every little crook and granny.
Some experts urge consumers to change their passwords at once, while others, equally expert, suggest consumers hold off until those running the websites they frequent — banks, email system providers and so on — have made their own changes, so passwords won't have to be changed yet again.
So, who and what is at risk? And who's responsible?
What Is Threatened
"Companies running services that rely at some point on OpenSSL might have been affected for the past two years," Martin Gallo, senior security consultant at Core Security, told TechNewsWorld. "As OpenSSL is the main security technology for the majority of the services running online, the impact is high."
End-user software also might be vulnerable, as the issue affects the client side of SSL connections using the OpenSSL library, he pointed out.
Systems potentially at risk, according to SANS, include the following: smart TVs, appliances and exercise equipment; Android smartphones, especially those updated by the carrier rather than by Google; database software; and cloud service clients.
Only devices running Android 4.1.1 (a version of Jelly Bean) are affected, according to Google, and a patch for 4.1.1 is being distributed to its partners. Why other versions of Android are immune is not clear.
Google did not respond to our request for further details.
Client applications reported to be vulnerable include MariaDB 5.5.36, curl 7.36.0, git 1.9.1 and OwnCloud.
Some Patches Being Issued
Just about every website is working on a patch.
Cisco has issued a response and will provide new information about Heartbleed as it becomes available, company spokesperson Nigel Glennie told TechNewsWorld.
Google has patched most of its services and is working on the rest.
Juniper Networks also has published a response.
BlackBerry is working on a patch, and McAfee is offering solutions.
Akamai Recovers After Stumble
Akamai issued a patch that a researcher discovered had flaws, which the company noted.
Akamai is rotating all customer SSL keys and certificates, but it can't pin down a date for completion because "many of the certificates our customers use require extra human validation — Extended Validation certificates — or are issued by CAs (certificate authorities) under the customer's control," Andy Ellis, its chief security officer, told TechNewsWorld.
Who's Gotta Pay?
"One of the main challenges [to remediation] is that OpenSSL is usually used in systems that are not easy to patch, such as embedded or network devices," Core Security's Gallo pointed out.
Fixing the problem can be expensive, as the costs will range from the patching of servers and workstations to issuing and deploying new certificates, he said.
That brings up the question of who should foot the bill for this work.
"Implementation and distribution are the responsibility of people who take and use the code developed by the OpenSSL Project," Steve Marquess, president of the OpenSSL Software Foundation, told TechNewsWorld.
"My understanding," said Core Security's Sor, "is that if a commercial company adopts an open source technology to develop their products, they are responsible for its ultimate security."


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Course Mentor, Children's Literature
Location: WORK FROM HOME, US
Job Category: Faculty, full-time (work from home)
Position Type: Full-Time/Regular
Apply Here
Job Description
The primary focus of the faculty at WGU is student learning. Because of our unique student-centric, competency-based approach, faculty serve in different roles compared to traditional schools and other online schools.
Course Mentors at WGU function in a professorial role as subject matter experts who assist students as they engage specific sections of the WGU curriculum. The type, length, and intensity of instructional method vary based upon student needs. Course Mentors help students with specific questions that arise and offer specialized instruction on challenging topics. Their primary focus is on bringing WGU courses of study to life through one-to-one or one-to-many forums. Course Mentors do not develop WGU courses, construct tests, or grade assessments independently, but may contribute subject matter expertise to a larger course design effort that includes national directors, instructional designers, program development managers, COS editors, product vendors, assessment/project designers, and others. Course mentor contribution to this team effort reflects the university's disaggregated model. Their experience and training is specific to the courses they support. They are knowledgeable and can address issues related to a course, learning resource content, or an assessment.
- Provide expertise in the content area.
- Respond to student inquiries about content, course of study, learning resource, or assessment.
- Maintain current and active knowledge in the expertise area in order to bring examples and ideas to students.
- Communicate professionally, relate well, and share a passion for the content in an effort to motivate a diverse group of students.
- Coach students to competency development by asking open-ended questions, brainstorming next steps, and maintaining accountability.
- Provide additional resources to students based on content expertise, while maintaining the students' responsibility for task competency.
- Empower students to develop competency by sharing a passion for the subject.
- Provide relevant information on student tasks based on feedback from graders.
Monitor and manage a dynamic learning community
- Respond to student questions within discussion threads in a timely manner.
- Update assessment announcements and live webinar schedule as necessary.
- Post university announcements including holidays, unique changes and vacations.
- Respond to student questions generated through "Ask a mentor" in the learning community in a timely manner.
- Upload and maintain links to recorded webinars (both with audio and as Powerpoints)
- Remove inappropriate student posts in a timely manner.
Utilize technology based teaching platforms to aid students in the development of competencies
- Bring the course of study to life with engaging live webinars or relevant recorded webinars that enhance expected competencies.
- Provide a recorded "Getting Started" session for each course.
- Provide a classroom environment conducive to learning and teaching using features in Adobe.
- Organize concepts in a logical and understandable sequence, utilizing examples and student interaction to facilitate learning
- Utilize innovative teaching techniques in order to meet student needs.
- Be proficient using Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, and Powerpoint) to create course deliverables (i.e. presentations, study guides, and spreadsheets).
Provide personalized outreach to at-risk students in a way that fosters development of competencies
- Use TaskStream reports to target students who have had a task sent back for revision.
- Assist students with the task revision process by clarifying evaluator comments, clarifying task directions, directing students to learning resources, and teaching the skills needed to develop appropriate competency.
- Collaborate with student mentors on strategies for supporting individual students.
- Used failed first attempts to identify at-risk students.
- Provide competency based study plans for students attempting second, third, and fourth attempts.
- Promote student success by showing flexibility in style, method, and communication.
- Assess individual student needs and provide honest feedback about next steps.
- Provide follow up calls or emails to students to summarize conversations.
- Establish and maintain office hours for student questions and consultation through phone, email, and IM.
- Encourage a culture of learning that values mutual responsibility and respect, life-long learning and ethics as well as personal and professional development.
- Routinely correlate concepts in the learning community with the course of study content.
Collaborate with other professionals within the University to promote a positive atmosphere in a student-focused environment
- Use knowledge of assessment to suggest revisions of course of study to product development.
- Identify gaps between student needs and existing resources and services; generate creative resolutions.
- Communicate with positive regard, respect, and solution- focus with members of other departments.
- Maintain knowledge of other departments/services such as Well Connect, Center for Writing Excellence, Career Services, etc. in order to connect students when appropriate.
- Serve on university committees and/or task forces to assist in achieving strategic goals.
- Engage other departments to solve complex issues students may encounter, outside content.
- Maintain appropriate notes and records to document attendance and contact with students; maintain confidentiality, according to law.
- Develop and maintain constructive and cooperative working relationships with others.
- Be available to assist in training new mentors as needed.
Maintain scholarly and professional expertise through professional development
- Maintain subscriptions to professional journals and memberships in professional associations most relevant to one's area of expertise.
- Participate in professional conferences as an attendee and/or as a presenter.
- Attend and actively participate in training opportunities provided in online and in person settings.
- Maintain the certifications, licenses or other professional credentials that were required for the position at the time of hiring.
- Actively seek out opportunities to meet with faculty of other institutions who share your area of expertise.
Balance content delivery with exceptional student service
- Provide prompt and courteous service, including keeping all scheduled appointments; in emergencies, give students appropriate and timely notice.
- Return all calls or emails within 4 business hours; Provide resolution or update student about progress on resolution of issue within 24 hours.
- Facilitate student interaction with other departments or personnel when needed to ensure the students get support and service.
- Provide honest feedback and recommendations while listening with an empathetic ear, explaining unwritten rules, acknowledging disappointments, and celebrating triumphs.
- Develop a teaching style that is individualized to student needs while also emphasizing real-world application of content.
- Work with difficult people in a positive and proactive manner.
- Clarify misconceptions by communicating the WGU mission and structure; provide a rationale behind policies.
Perform other duties as assigned
- Maintain a non-traditional schedule with a minimum of ten (10) hours per week outside the hours of 9 to 5 (in the employee's home time zone).
- Plan vacation days in advance and collaborate with team members for adequate coverage.
- Attend WGU academic meetings on a time table and at a geographic location determined by management, usually twice a year.
- Embrace change proactively.
- Keep up-to-date technically and apply new knowledge to job responsibilities.
- Contribute to the wider WGU community by participating in collaboration opportunities, including focus groups and the Mentor Development Community.
- Effective mentoring of students with a professional approach and knowledge of the competency based model.
- Positive working relationship with student mentors, course mentors and students.
- Response time to students and University employees is appropriate and aligned with the University goal.
- Maintain reports of student progress ensuring that reports and documents are neat, accurate, and completed timely.
- Calls and inquiries are courteously and professionally resolved or referred.
- The University's professional reputation is maintained.
- Management is appropriately informed of area activities and of any significant problems.
Required Skills
- Success in working on complex projects using a collaborative work model;
- Superior writing and technology skills;
- Mastery of relevant competencies and topics associated with the assigned COS(s);
- Well organized;
- Attentive to detail;
- Ability to assist and support others;
- Subject matter expertise in K-12 Children's Literature;
- Ability to respond quickly and thoroughly to student questions and concerns; and
- Travel to and participation in semi-annual academic meetings is required.
Required Experience
Minimum Qualifications Education: A doctorate or terminal degree in the specified content area. Other qualifications and/or licensure may be required for some degree programs.
Experience/Expertise: Experience providing student support and instruction; demonstrated ability to work with struggling or at-risk learners.
Hard/technical skills: Able to utilize phone, email, Internet, instant message, Microsoft office suite, and technology based delivery systems. Soft skills: Leadership; communication; independent self-starter/self-manager; understanding and appreciation of competency-based education; proficiency in oral and written English communication; track record for effective coaching and communication skills within a diverse population; and demonstrated professionalism that displays effective judgment and professional integrity. Other: Able to pass a criminal background check. Must be lawfully employable in the United States either by virtue of citizenship or by permanent residency via a green card.
Preferred Qualifications Experience working with adult learners and distance learning environments preferred; experience with APA formatting preferred.
K-12 Children's Literature Experience


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The following is a refined form of the problem that I posted more than 18 hours ago.
I am new to Tikz. However, even with the little knowledge I have of TikZ, I do appreciate its superiority over the other graphics packages that I have used previously.
I would like to create a TikZ node style that can produce the diagram shown below. I have drawn it using Xfig. However, I would like to draw it in a more flexible way using TikZ. The following constraints pertain to the diagram:
- The arcs on the left and the right sides of the rectangular structure are semi-circles --- each has a radius that is half the height of the underlying rectangle(s).
- The two triangles inside the structure are similar.
- Each triangle is an isosceles triangle whose apex lies on the center-line that is parallel to the top and bottom edges of the rectangular structure.
- The dimensions of the triangles are fixed fractions of the height of the rectangular structure.
- The base of the filled triangle is on the left edge of the (imaginary) inner rectangle; and that of the second triangle is on the base right edge of the (imaginary) inner rectangle.
The only parameters that I should be free to alter are the positions of the anchors, the height and the width of the rectangular structure. I need to know how I can access the height and width parameters and use them in the calculation of the other parameters of the structure.
Could some experienced user of TikZ and PGF come to my aid.